Portal and Workflow in Grid Computing: From Application Integration to Service Integration - Grid Computing: Infrastructure, Service, and Applications - page 278

Resource Meter extracts resource usage information from the operating
system and presents it in a grid standard form (i.e., UR); (2) the Grid
Bank Charging Module (GBCM) is responsible for determining payment
instruments, setting up and removing temporary local accounts, calcu-
lating total charge, and so on; (3) the Grid Bank Payment Module (GBPM)
receives requests for job execution from the Grid Resource Broker (GRB),
obtains a payment instrument from the Grid Bank server, forwards the
payment to GBCM and submits the job; (4) the Grid Trade Server negoti-
ates service cost/rates with GRB and provides an interface for GBCM to
obtain the information.

11.2.3.1.4 SweGrid Accounting System
A Swedish National Grid (SweGrid) grid accounting system uses the Bank
Service and Accounting Manager [24] for grid accounting. The Accounting
Manager controls the Job Manager, and the accounting mechanism can be
described as follows: After a user submits a job request to resource, the job
request is intercepted by the Accounting Manager, which then queries the
Bank Service to check the credit balance. If the credit balance is allowed for
a job run within the grid, the Accounting Manager forwards the request to
the Job Manager, which submit the job to the grid. After the job has been
completed (or canceled), the Accounting Manager gathers information
about the resources consumed by the job and records this in a UR.

11.2.3.2 Portal: Front-End of a Grid Accounting System

The grid accounting system usually involves users checking their credit
balance, resources used, bills, and so on. For example, a user may need to
specify which account should be charged for resource utilization, to obtain
the usage rates associated with a particular resource, to view the currently
available quota (the account balance), to collect usage information from
previous service interactions, and so on. Some accounting systems even
provide functionality for online transactions. Hence, an accounting sys-
tem should provide a unii ed front end with a user-friendly interface that
integrates these operations. Using a portal as a front end to the accounting
system is an ideal solution.
Generally, a portal as a front end for the grid accounting system should
provide the following key functionalities:

• provide users with usage rates; that is, the cost associated with

using a particular resource;
grant/deny user access based on their previous resource utili- •

zation; for example, denying service request if exceeding the
allocated quota;